I am so stoked that I got my third Mazda last month! Mazda for life! As many of you know, I have only owned Mazdas in my 11 years of driving. I am no auto mechanic and that's a good thing because I have done little more than changed the oil and tires in all of the Mazdas that I have owned.
My first car was the Green Hornet (RIP Bruce Lee), a 1996 forest green Mazda MX-6. That car earned me a "Nicest Car" award in my high school yearbook sophomore year and drew jealousy from all of the car nuts who spent hundreds of dollars on every body kit, lift, drop and other aesthetic that you could imagine. I, on the other hand, never even changed my license plate cover. It looked fast. It wasn't. It just looked good.
I drove the Green Hornet through high school and college until I could afford a newer Mazda, which I dubbed the Blue Hornet, opting to keep the Hornet surname while acknowledging the new, blue color. This was a 2005 Mazda 3 hatchback and another great car. Like the Green Hornet, the Blue Hornet was a manual and I loved whipping that car around Seattle. I bought it because I needed a little more storage and the car offered me the room with a sporty style.
Then Amanda came along.
My how priorities changed! We bought a house, got married, bought Amanda a Ford Focus after that bus totaled her Volkswagon, got new jobs and overall changed our lifestyles quite dramatically. Additional changes included a significantly longer commute to work and the decision to downsize to one car (The Focus if for sale now!).
Naturally, I wanted to keep the Blue Hornet. I loved that car, but the stick wouldn't make the cut for the often icky freeway commute. I was getting shin splints in my left leg from being on and off the clutch so much on I-5. I searched the depths of the Internet for another car. I started with crossovers and then started looking at sedans. For our price range, I just couldn't find the car that would suit our needs for sporty style, space and gas mileage.
I finally came full circle and began looking at Mazda 3 hatchbacks with automatic transmissions. I already knew that I liked the style and space, but I didn't realize that they also offered best-in-class gas mileage. The following weekend, we went to University Mazda to trade in the Blue Hornet and updgraded a couple years to a lower mileage 2007 Mazda 3 with all of the specs - power everything, Bose sound system, moon roof, leather seats, remote start and a laundry list of other features. Allow me to introduce you to the Phantom Hornet!
It's called Phantom Hornet because the color is technically a "Phantom Blue" and Phantom Hornet just sounds so badass! Bruce Lee would be proud. Don't know what he'd think of the new The Green Hornet movie. Regardless, happy times.
